Published June 1992 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd 1992 Robert C. Byrd Scholastic Recognition A wards
Each year since 1969, through the Robert C. Byrd Scholastic Recognition Awards program funded from a private trust that I established, I have provided U.S. Savings Bonds to the valedictorians of the graduating classes of West Virginia's public, parochial, and private high schools, and the Schools for the Deaf and Blind at Romney. This year, another 284 valedictorians from 205 West Virginia high schools have been named Robert C. Byrd Scholastic Recognition Award winners, bringing to 6,303 the total number of valedictorians so honored since 1969. The Scholastic Recognition Award -- currently, a $50 U.S. Savings Bond -- is a way that I have chosen to emphasize to our state's valedictorians the pride that we have in their academic achievements. In our society, too much emphasis is often placed on, and recognition given to, less noble accomplishments than good arid responsible performance in school. For example, many rock musicians and others in the entertainment field are paid individually millions of dollars annually. Unfortunately, society receives little- in return for this generosity in terms of diseases cured, real problems solved, new inventions developed, or jobs created. West Virginia's high school valedictorians are among our state's most valuable assets and finest potential human resources. Through the Robert C. Byrd Scholastic Recognition Awards, I hope that these bright young men and women will realize how much we appreciate the records that they carved out in school, that they will be encouraged to go on to higher levels of education and training, and that they will cast their futures in West Virginia. I congratulate this year's Award winners, and I wish them every success in decades to come. June 24, 1992